Live webchat with Tanya Byron about internet safety, Wed 24 Feb, 1pm

Tanya is a practising consultant in child and adolescent mental health who has two children of her own. She's the author of three books and a well-known broadcaster.

Ahead of the chat, Tanya has sent us this to post on her behalf:

I really enjoyed my last webchat on Mumsnet and found the the questions and insights really interesting.

I have recently been asked by Gordon Brown to review internet safety since my Safer Children in a Digital World report (the Byron review) in 2008.

To ensure my review takes in parents' views, I'm really keen to get Mumsnetters' perspectives on both the opportunities that you think the internet gives your children and also the risks you've encountered.

I'd like to chat about anything to do with internet safety, but to get your thoughts flowing, a few starting points could be:

Is there enough information which is easily accessible about internet safety?

Where do you get your information and advice on internet safety?

How good are schools at educating children about internet safety?

What do you think about internet safety in the context of videogames, games consoles and mobile phones?

We have just experienced every parents worst nightmare. Our eldest daughter turned 16 just 2 weeks ago and last week we got up to find her gone leaving just a letter full of made up journey she was taking. By luck one of her siblings told us she had been parading in states of undress on the webcam when we were not in the house so we reported her missing. Police located her quickly but she was already on a plane to UK. By good fortune the police got her at Heathrow and arrested the man she was meeting. She hates us at the moment and now social workers are trying to unravel the mess.It seems she had been chatting to him for 2 years. I had caught her in the beginning and had explained about the dangers, had then checked emails and kept reminding her about a man some 20 years older than her and it seemed to sink in and she assured me that she had not contacted him again. As parents we feel we failed her but these people are so clever that they know how to hide their tracks and it is scary. So to any parent out there be extra vigilant don't be too trusting of your child as we were.We hope we can salvage her back onto the right track but if this blog helps protect just one other child then some good has come and if anyone else can give us advice asto how we can help her get through this then please let us know.

Spotted a full-page ad in ^The Times^ today for Click Clever, Click Safe, so momentum seems to be gathering behind it - which can only be good. Will be dropping it into conversation with friends as well as something worthwhile looking at.

Just found that I started this post and didn't finish it - had to dash off. One thing I wanted to share that we've discussed at MNHQ is the legal age requirement for having a facebook account and the fact that it's so widely ignored, and how schools could help. Some schools are obviously better than others at discussing it, but the big thing for my eldest dd (age 11) is who is on facebook and twitter etc, can she have an account because x, y and z have one. The fact that I could tell her that it's illegal and there may be repercussions for her friends who have underage accounts has given her a reason to stand up to peer pressure. Such a simple thing. Surely if schools made it more clear/ a punishable offence to have a facebook account before the age of 13, it would help parents and children alike to delay this until children are a bit older and hopefully more able to cope

whispy - I am a great believer (perhaps Dr Tanya will disillusion me!) that if you do not allow your children the opportunity to learn how to amuse themselves, then they never will. We cram our children's lives full of activities - give them some time and space to spend an hour making a fortress out of old cardboard boxes!

Ladies and gentlemen, sadly I have to leave you now. Thank you so much for your time and your candour. Please let MNHQ know if you are not happy for me to use anything you have said today as a quote (I would never quote your name, by the way!) I am off to have more meetings than I wish to and would love to carry on chatting to you, maybe again sometime soon.